Alberto Gonzales’ ‘smug self-assurance’

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales “was in the thick of President George W. Bush’s most damaging attacks on the rule of law. As White House counsel, he helped to justify torture and illegal wiretapping. As attorney general, he politicized the Justice Department. And he misled Congress in both jobs. He could have told the truth about those things. Or, he could have gone quietly away and waited for a subpoena from the Obama administration.”

An editorial in today’s (Jan. 28) New York Times about Gonzales, whose attitude toward his lackluster record at the Justice Department has been met with what the commentary describes as “smug self-assurance.”

I’m glad you wrote this article, but hope we’ve learned some lessons. It’s easy to follow the pack now, but at the time of Gonzalez’s appointment, lots of latino leaders were supporting him. I wrote a piece denouncing Alberto Gonzalez for the Texas Observer, as many leaders were approving of him because he was “one of us.” Calling the SA-EN, I asked the columnist Jan Jarboe (regarding her weekly debate with the conservative columnist Gurwitz): Why did you hold back on Gonzalez? He’s a bad guy. She retorted that I did not speak for latinos — and I suspect she was trying to go along with many local leaders who didn’t or couldn’t believe that a man born into a family who had experience injustice would support injustice throughout the world.